


We may seek graces

by yeahwrite



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom - Fandom
Genre: AU Venom 2018 comic, Bittersweet, Conversations, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane, References to past death, Reflection, Religion, Scene Change, Sibling Bonding, Swearing, mention of suicidal thoughts, no actual death here - but a previous one being heavily referenced
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 10:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17865224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeahwrite/pseuds/yeahwrite
Summary: ”We may seek graces, but shall never find them without the intercession of Mary.”This might not have been the Mary here that the quote was referring to, but for Eddie - this one was even more important.





	We may seek graces

**Author's Note:**

> I did not like issue 11: I'll put it like that and leave it there. This is a changed scene from that - dialogue taken form it, up to a certain point.
> 
> I'll also comment that I headcanon Eddie visited Mary's mindscape once too, while she was in a coma. Also that he visited her grave to tell her about Sleeper - both of which shall be relevant here.
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading this!

Sitting alone, in the hospital, Eddie did not want to see what he was being called for.

Intercom going on again and again.

“Brock?”

He couldn’t.

“Brock?”

He wouldn’t.

“Brock?”

Even alone…if he sat here…if he stayed here, he could ignore it.

Ignore it and the very visceral, gripping fear that was gripping and threatening to drag him right on down into a abyss he didn’t know he could get back up from.

Ignore it, like it wasn’t happening at all.

He could almost-

“Eddie…” A familiar, stern voice, broke him off from his thought, as suddenly he realised he wasn’t actually alone here.

His sister.

She was sitting right there next to him.

Sitting there, in that red cardigan of hers – one he vividly remembered, having once accidentally spilled barbeque sauce all over.

Or at least, she was, then with a small shake of the head, she was up – hand extended towards him.

An incredibly sad smile, that did not belong on a child’s face.

But one just as familiar to his sister as her voice.

“…You can’t ignore this forever.”

“Mary?”

She…

Eddie was dumbfounded, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.

Something…something seemed off…but…he couldn’t quite-

“I know you’re scared.” Came gently, hand still outstretched.

“But I’m here.”

He took the hand and stood up, as Mary started walking off, leading him on to her hurried pace.

A determined squeeze of his hand as she did…and as they neared their apparent destination.

**[CANCER WARD]**

“You’re not alone.” She sounded so sincere as she spoke, like delivering an obvious promise to a stupid paranoid little brother, that would never ever be broken.

There was just one flaw to that promise, one little flaw brought on by a sudden, abrupt remembering that felt just as brutal as when he’d first heard the news all over again…

That his sister had been dead for years.

 

* * *

 

_“Listen to me – please, I could save you Mary, we could save you! We  know how to wake you up!”_

_A look which told him his answer before it was even said._

 

 

* * *

 

This wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be real.

No matter how much like that it felt.

This was just some twisted _dream._

He-

The door pushed open and the scene shifted.

And Eddie was no longer a young boy.

He was back looking like the sorry excuse of a lonely man, in-

“What?...Where…where am I?”

“Oh, come now, Eddie…surely you haven’t forgotten this place.”

Mary again, still looking like a little girl – only obscured this time.

Hidden in the shadows, rendering her expression unreadable.

But her statement no less correct, especially as Eddie realised what he held in his hands.

“ _No…_ ”

“Why did you come here?”

“I…I was going to…I was going to end it.”

“That’s not what I meant Eddie.” Mary sighed, having moved out of the shadows again.

“Why are we here now?”

A pause.

_“What?”_

Once again, Mary sat back down next to him, cross-legged on the cold floor of the church.

Although this time, she did not meet her brother’s eye.

Looking off into the distance, as if she were seeing something else entirely.

“What do you mean by that?!”

“I meant what I said stupid.”

Another moment of incredulous silence, before Eddie let off a bitter bark of laughter at this twisted, fucked up sort of situation.

Here he was, sitting in the church he’d meant to die in, being insulted by his dead sister like nothing had changed at all from when they were kids.

When he stopped though, Mary was looking at him again, frown having only grown.

“What happened here?”

This was far, far too cruel.

Everything else that had happened, and now this?

Eddie dropped the cold metal in his hands.

It landed with a clatter.

“Please, whatever figment of my mind you are- just let me _be alone._ ” He pleaded, eyes scrunching shut as he internally tried will this all away.

An incredulous sound from Imagi-Mary followed by a sarcasm-filled retort.

“ _Let you be?_ Yes, because that’s what I’m going to do. Come all the way here from the _dead_ , only to just go away now.”

“You’re not back from the dead! You’re not real, none of this is real!” Eddie roared, whipping back around to face her.

Only to see her physically recoil as he did, her expression one of utter hurt – like each of his words had just been a smack across the face.

Causing her little brother’s voice and resolve to both waver.

“So please…just… _please_ …don’t try to act like it.”

Only for hers to then seem to harden.

Brow furrowing as it did.

“…Real…or…real or not, because knowing your stubborn head I’ll just be wasting my time trying to convince you. It doesn’t matter.” A shake of a head as stubborn as the one she claimed her brother to have.

“I made a promise didn’t I?”

 

* * *

 

_“I never should have fucking left you alone with that monster Eddie, I’m so, so sorry.”_

 

* * *

 

“Back when you were in my head. You and your…your ‘Other’.”

…Yeah, yeah he did remember that.

Too well.

There was no way to forget it.

He’d wanted to _save_ her.

He’d wanted to save her so, so _badly_ , after he’d found out about the coma.

His…his Other had been willing to help, had agreed to the bond if it meant saving someone so, so important to him.

She…she just needed to agree too.

But she’d said _no._

Being oh so determined to do this on her terms – and too terrified of being potentially controlled again, like she’d spent her entire life after leaving home trying desperately to avoid, no matter _what_ Eddie said to try convince her that would never happen.

“What did I say then, Eddie? What did I promise?”

Eddie did not respond, hands instead rising to cover his face, as he choked back a sob.

Only for firm hands to bring them back down to his side.

Allowing him to see an adult woman, with long, curly blonde hair and a polka dot shirt, kneeling down with and in front of him.

“I said I wouldn’t let you be alone. That I wouldn’t abandon you. _Never_ again.” Mary finished for him.

Eddie failed to hold back the sobs any more, as once again, his sister pulled him into a hug.

And then and there, it didn’t matter that none of this was real at all.

It felt far too real and brought forward memories that most certainly were.

 

* * *

 

_The hug felt like one that neither of them would ever let go off._

_As tight as a sailor desperately clinging to a life jacket that threatened to be drift away and lost forever to the sea._

_But, the truth remained the same._

_As much as they might want to…_

_They could not hold on forever._

_“Goodbye Eddie.”_

_They were going to have to let go eventually._

 

* * *

 

“I kind of thought…well. I was hoping to wake up from that one. Have good ol’ family determination pull me on through. Pull on through and get my life back together. Do all those things I wanted. And keep in touch through actual _visits_ this time.”

_“I wanted that too.”_

“Well, we kind of got screwed on over on that one, didn’t we? So, ghost phone it is, this time. Like the good, church-going, Catholic woman that I am.” Mary tried joke, but neither of the Brock’s were in the heart to take it.

But that was still, by far, preferable to what was said next, all trace of humour gone.

“You need to go Eddie”

A shake of the head.

Not _yet._

_Just a bit longer-_

“I won’t be gone Eddie. I never will be. No matter what happens with your Other or anybody else – you will never be alone.”

A rattling breath.

“But they need you back down there. Now.”

She pulled back from the hug, despite how hard Eddie tried to cling on- “Wait! No! _Mary!_ ”

Shoulders twitched, like she wanted to change her mind too, to rush back into one more hug with her baby brother – but ultimately, his sister remained as still as one of the statues of this church.

And then her shoulders sagged and it was that sad, sad, smile again.

“Tell me, Eddie. What happened here? Why didn’t you die?”

He opened his mouth, only for her to interject again-

“You know why.” She simply said.

“Yes.”

“Then use that _why_ again.  Use the why of why you’ve kept going to keep going. Preferably before our dad ruins another kid’s life.”

“Dylan?!”

Dylan!

Oh god, Dylan-

“Seems like a nice kid.”

The scene before Eddie started to distort and fade out, as Mary herself started to fade into the growing white.

Looking more and more like the ghost that she was.

“Do me a favour and give him a hug for me, will you? Him and that baby you told me about. And _kick our dad’s_ _ass.”_

 

 

* * *

 

_Eddie’s eyes snapped open._

 

 

 


End file.
